The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued new guidance calling on public companies to be more forthcoming when disclosing cybersecurity risks, even before a breach or attack happens. The statement, which expands on previous guidance issued in 2011, also warns that corporate insiders must not trade shares when they have information about cybersecurity issues that isn’t public yet. Read More

Capillary Technologies, an India-based startup that helps e-commerce businesses manage their marketing and customer engagement, has pulled in $20 million in fresh funding from existing investors Warburg Pincus and Sequoia. The company said it plans to use the capital to develop its products and R&D, including a new focus on the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) space where it works… Read More

Following a slowdown in e-commerce sales over the holidays, Walmart today is readying a new strategy to attract online shoppers with an increased focus on home goods. The retailer is now launching a redesigned Home shopping experience on the web which will better highlight home products, like furniture, accessories, and other decorative items. The new site’s home page will feature… Read More

Intel has announced that the fix is out for its latest chips affected by Spectre, the memory-leakage flaw affecting practically all computing hardware. The patch is for the Skylake generation (late 2015) and newer, though most users will still have to wait for the code to be implemented by whoever manufactured their computer (specifically, their motherboard). Read More

Magic 8-Balls have been known to hold some disappointing, trivial answers to teenage life’s hardest questions, but one LA startup is hoping to find success in them. Hear360 has just begun shipping pre-orders of 8ball, a souped-up binaural 360 microphone rig geared toward professionals that are all about experimenting in new immersive mediums. Read More

Investors don’t want their portfolio companies to pay you too much, or too little. So they pay Advanced-HR for its compensation data pulled from 2,500 startups. With a generic name, the service has flown somewhat under the radar since launching 20 years ago.
As startups grow more professional while staying private longer, they’re getting serious about how they structure equity… Read More

KitSplit, which operates amarketplace for creative equipment, is announcing that it’s raised $2.1 million in seed funding. The equipment available for rental can include cameras, lights and lenses, but also VR gear and drones. Renters get access to this equipment for a lower price, while the equipment owners get to make some extra money from equipment when they’re not using it. Read More

Ford today announced the departure of Raj Nair, Ford’s president of North America and former executive vice president, Product Development and chief technical officer. According to a press release, he is leaving the company following a recent internal investigation that found certain behavior by Nair was “inconsistent with the company’s code of conduct.” Nair worked at… Read More

Despite surpassing analyst expectations for the quarter, Roku disappointed Wall Street when it shared its fourth-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday. The digital streaming business fell about 18% in after-hours trading, in the minutes following the news release. Roku posted $188.3 million revenue, when Yahoo! Finance estimates showed $182.5 million. It’s also up from $147.3… Read More

The pixel-peepers at DxOMark have shared some of the interesting metrics and techniques they use to judge the quality of a smartphone’s artificial bokeh, or background blur in photos. Not only is it difficult to do in the first place, but they have to systematize it! Their guide should provide even seasoned shooters with some insight into the many ways computational bokeh varies in quality. Read More

Perhaps the most surprising thing I learned about Signal when I spoke with Moxie Marlinspike, the app’s creator, last year at Disrupt, was that it was essentially running on a shoestring budget. A tool used by millions and feared by governments worldwide, barely getting by! But $50M from WhatsApp founder Brian Acton should help secure the app’s future. Read More

I’ve had a number of conversations with blockchain-focused people over the past few weeks. In some of those conversations there is a palpable excitement and a belief that this technology is going to end up being their life’s work. I’ve also had significantly more morose conversations with investors who are starting to lose faith in blockchain as a medium for investment returns. Read More

It’s a gloomy time in media, with frequent announcements of layoffs and shutdowns (it even happened today). That’s why it seems remarkable for an established publication to announce ambitious plans for newsroom expansion. The publication in question is The Atlantic, the magazine in which Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective bought a majority stake last year. The… Read More

The micro venture firm UpWest Labs was founded nearly six years ago in Palo Alto with one mission in mind: to bring Israeli founders to the U.S. when their companies are still nascent and provide them with enough financial and other resources to get going. Read More

How much can customer service be automated? Onward has some straightforward targets — 40 percent of tickets and 40 percent of messages should be automated, and average response times should be 40 seconds on average. Read More